It's not over yet at Blas 2013
There is still plenty of action to come in the second half of Blas 2013’s action-packed week with ticket availability for most shows still good. However, with the festival’s opening concert in Inverness last weekend doubling its audience on the previous year, it is expected that demand could be high for a number of events still to come.
The 30th anniversary celebration of the formation of one of Gaelic music’s modern institutions, Capercaillie, is one of this year’s festival highlights. The band, fronted by Karen Matheson, will be appearing at Eden Court on Saturday 14th, the final night of the festival along with Seamus Begley & Jim Murray and Gaelic writers Angus Peter Campbell and Niall O' Gallagher.
But Blas is a pan-Highland event and venues throughout the area will be rattling to the rafters between now and the weekend as Blas 2013 thunders on towards a spectacular conclusion. From Invergarry to Aviemore, Roy Bridge to Portmahomack and Argyll and the island of Canna, there is still plenty to choose from, according to the festival director Donna Macrae.
She said: “Audience numbers have remained very good after our spectacular start and this is very encouraging. Midweek events are sometimes tricky but the strength of our programme has been drawing folk out all week and it is a tribute to all the hard work put in by everyone that we have been able to sustain the good start we had at our opening concert. It’s the final push now and the most challenging part of the festival as it peaks towards the weekend’s finale. However, we are up for it and it should be another fabulous four days.”
Another major draw at Blas is Mànran, who face a busy end to the week. They are appearing in Oban’s Corran Halls along with Scottish music legends Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham and the young musicians from Fèis Latharna on Thursday night, this year being the first time the Blas festival will have engaged with Argyll venues. There has already been a successful evening on Islay last Friday and Bunessan Hall in Mull should be bouncing on Saturday night as the festival closes there with the Donald Black Band and Gaelic singers Paul McCallum and Maggie Macdonald.
All is set for a packed house at the Nevis Centre in Fort William on Friday evening when a host of top musicians and singers gather to celebrate shinty’s modern resurgence. Gary Innes and Hugh Dan MacLennan will orchestrate events as they give the game’s current vibrancy full flow with an audio-visual gallop through the game’s history and they are promising a few surprises and plenty of fun on the way.
“Curaidhean – Shinty’s Heroes” will include Mànran singer, Norrie MacIver, Kathleen MacInnes, Ewan Robertson, piper Duncan MacGillivray and fiddlers Duncan Chisholm, Allan Henderson and Iain Macfarlane with a special guest appearance from the Royal Scots shinty team. All in all, a fantastic start to the Scottish Hydro Camanachd Cup weekend in Fort William, the big day being Saturday when Newtonmore take on Kyles Athletic at An Aird from 2.15pm.
The same night, in Plockton High School, Irish singer Grainne Holland - fresh from Thursday's An Guth/The Voice concert at Eden Court - will perform alongside youngsters from Sgoil Chiùil na Gàidhealtachd, the National Centre for Excellence in Traditional Music. Roybridge will be visited by Cruinn – James Graham, Rachel Walker, Brian Ó hEadhra and Fiona Mackenzie - as well as Fèis Lochabair Cèilidh Trail, while the new school at Acharacle will host Seamus Begley & Jim Murray, Angus Peter Campbell, Caledonian Cèilidh Trail and Fèis nan Garbh Chrìochan.
An excerpt of the Blas 2013 new commission by piper Calum MacCrimmon will also feature at the Eden Court event on Saturday night. "Boraraig" was premiered in Beauly’s Phipps Hall on Tuesday night before moving on to Dunvegan Village Hall on Wednesday, Invergarry Village Hall on Thursday, and Aviemore Primary School on Friday before the Eden Court performance on Saturday. Adding to what will be a great day at Eden Court on Saturday is a presentation of some of the films form the Gaelic shorts Film G competition, being screened at the Playhouse Cinema from 4pm and the launch of the Gaelic and Scots versions of a Tintin story - An t-Eilean Dubh by Gillibride MacMillan and The Derk Isle by Dr Susan Rennie - by the Skye-based publishers Taigh na Teud.
“Eun Beag Chanaidh/A Little Bird Blown Off Course" - Fiona J Mackenzie's new commission with the National Theatre of Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland is now touring the Highlands, taking in Ullapool's Macphail Centre on Thursday, Strathpeffer Pavilion on Friday before finishing off, very appropriately, on Saturday 14th in Camus Arts Centre on the Island of Canna.